Return of the Memory
by NightfallSky
Summary: Twilight Town trio friendship. Contains spoilers for KH3D. Lea sits at the clock tower for ice-cream as certain missing memories resurface...


**Surprise, surprise! Look who's back to writing fanfiction after one year (and more, I think) of hiatus.**

**I'll be honest here. Last time, I fell out of love with Kingdom Hearts. It was like, seriously falling out of love. I didn't bother with Re:Coded, or even Dream Drop Distance. But when Kingdom Hearts 1.5 HD ReMix trailer was out, I don't know. I just sort of fell in love again. And even crazier now. Kingdom Hearts 358/2 Days cutscenes in HD are so much win, don't you agree? ...Wait, I should stop rambling about that. Yeah, so that's what happened, and me starting college. It was a BIG transition in my life. Good things, bad things, all happened like BOOM. In short, my life was suddenly a mess. I just lost contact with fanfiction. Not only did I stop writing, but I stopped reading as well. I didn't read, review or do anything at all. I'm truly sorry.**

**But recently I had been thinking of coming back, so... I hope you all will still accept me. No pairing is involved in this fic, just to let you know. The main here is Lea (with Roxas and Xion playing small part). My writing might be off, so I apologize in advance. Not sure if my writing actually improved after all this time...but anyways, I do hope you enjoy this short fic. :)**

**Disclaimer****: Kingdom Hearts and the characters belong to Square Enix and Disney.**

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_Clock Tower, Twilight Town_

It was another afternoon like it had always been. A spiky red-haired man in black coat was sitting on the ledge, a familiar blue ice-cream in hand.

Eating it slowly, the redhead, Lea—previously known as a Nobody named Axel—savored the taste of sea-salt ice-cream after being away for quite some time. Fading away, then being sent to wander in nowhere but darkness—until finally returning—and as a whole at that, much to his surprise.

To this day, he could still remember the days when he would regularly come to this very place to sit and have ice-cream after missions. Almost every day. Back when it was mostly just missions and nothing more. Back when he wasn't all alone like now.

There was Roxas. He would always be here too, waiting for him with sea-salt ice-cream. Then they would talk and laugh together—something unusual for Nobodies to do—but came off as just natural for both of them. They were friends, after all. _Best_ friends, forever.

_Roxas..._

_Let's meet again in the next life,_ he (Axel) said.

_He'll be waiting,_ he said.

_Look who's gotten a next life now?_

In the end, Roxas wasn't there to meet him. He was never there. Well, there was Sora, which was basically him—his whole. Sora was a friend of Lea, too. He, as Axel, was the one who had made that promise. A promise of a lifetime to protect his friends. To always be there to bring them back.

Lea remembered the dream he had before waking up as a human. Roxas and him were sitting right here at the clock tower. In the dream, the younger Nobody had reminded him about that promise. _Got it memorized?_ Sure, he'd gotten that memorized, thanks a lot. Indeed, he promised. To himself, and to his friends.

His mind went back to the faithful moment when he made that promise. He was still Axel back then. He was angry. He was desperate. Even though he didn't have a heart (or did he?). He could remember them walking away, leaving him. His friends—wait, what?

_Friends?_

Wasn't there only Roxas?

Suddenly Lea's head hurt. Why did he feel that this was important? Slowly...slowly... He needed to think about this slowly. For some reason, he felt like he really needed to remember about this...but why?

"Friends"… Who _were_ his friends? There was Roxas, _and…_

Lea closed his eyes, taking a deep breath.

_...who?_ Why couldn't he remember? Saix- _no_.

Saix. Isa. Lea had had enough. The two of them—they were done. With the clashing of their weapons back there in The World that Never Was, Lea knew it was officially the end of their friendship. His old friend Isa was no more.

Placing a palm on his temple and massaging it lightly, Lea tried to shrug the thought of Isa off his head for a while. _Nope, definitely not Isa._

_But if it wasn't him, then who was this other "friend"?_

If he was not wrong, there **was** one other person... wait a sec, _was there?_ Lea was thinking hard now. He heard an unfamiliar voice—yet it felt familiar at the same time—along with Roxas'.

_"Hey, Axel! You're late!"_

_"How was today's mission, Axel?"_

A girl's voice... Namine- no, Kairi? But how? He was certain he never met Kairi until Roxas was gone.

_"…Axel."_

He kind of remembered the voice. The girl—whoever she was—she sounded somewhat sad. It was as if she was scared of him being mad over something.

_"Please don't hold back, Axel. Promise."_

Lea's chest felt hurt at this point, thanks to the heart he'd gotten back now. It felt like he remembered the exact same pain in his chest before, though.

_Why?_

Lea's grip on the now-finished ice-cream stick tightened. What was wrong with him? Why was the girl's voice in his head? Why couldn't he remember what had happened? Why couldn't he remember anything about her?

Voices of hers and Roxas' continued to echo in his mind. Surely Roxas knew her, too. Lea's chest still hurt. She was...important. That was what he could think. Not only to him, but to Roxas, too. Roxas and him seemed to...care a lot about her. She cared about them, too. _What was her name?_ Even that Lea couldn't remember.

Now that he was human and no longer a Nobody, Lea could feel a pang of hurt stinging in his chest. Because of sadness...of not being able to remember something important. How embarrassing. Lea had always told others to get things memorized, but now he himself couldn't remember a thing that he should had gotten memorized for the rest of his life.

After a long moment of thinking hard, Lea finally gave up. Nope, he still couldn't remember much. Based on the memories, in form of voices—which came with little sharp pains in his head every time he forced himself to remember—he could tell that there was this girl, who sounded almost like Kairi. She was...a friend of Roxas' and his. She seemed important. As important as Roxas was to him.

Lea sighed in frustration. How was he going to find out about her, and the reason that memories of her seemed to be a heavily shrouded mystery. Perhaps he should ask Sora. Or Yen Sid. The wizard might know of something. Could it be related to what was happening with Xemnas and the new organization?

...

"Looks like it's time to go."

He'd been staying here for enough, after making it back to Radiant Garden to finish some business with the apprentices. Dilan, Even, Aeleus, and Ienzo... Man, those guys sure looked lively nowadays. Afterwards he made sure to pay a visit here in Twilight Town, for the sake of sea-salt ice-cream and sitting at the clock tower (without even bothering to change since the organization coat was convenient when he needed to use the dark corridor), only to remember some painful memories and pick up memory pieces of an unknown girl...still, that might be a start, at the least.

A lot of things sure had happened since the last time he was here...

Lea slowly got up. Facing the sunset, he smiled slightly at the view of Twilight Town from his place. A tram passed by, just like the usual days. This town, the clock tower, his favourite place, seemed to be the things that didn't change—except for Roxas' absence...and hers.

He looked at his right hand. Holding it out, his Keyblade materialized in his grip. Right, he _is_ a Keyblade wielder now. Even he had changed. Axel the organization member was in the past. Standing here right now was Lea, a Keyblade wielder.

Regardless of that though, how he would really like to meet Roxas. And that girl. The three of them could eat ice-cream together, and talk about how life was like as Keyblade wielders, and stuff. Now he might be able to understand the pain. He would need a lot more to learn about the new weapon though.

Lea raised his Keyblade, the large fire-themed key glistened with the sunset's ray. Admiring its view, his lips formed a proud smile.

_Let's meet again, soon. The three of us._

He saw two Keyblades next to his, one to his left and one to his right. They were Kingdom Keys like the one Sora had. Two figures were standing by his side, smiling as they raised their weapons up high as well. It was Roxas and the girl he couldn't remember; she had short-black hair, and a sincere-looking smile, although the rest of her face was unclear, covered by her bangs.

_"All for one," _They said together.

"And one for all," Lea finished with a smile—a determined smile.

The two shorter figures laughed in glee as their figures and voices slowly faded into a soft breeze of wind. Lea nodded, closing his eyes as the gentle wind blew.

"I'll be seeing you, then. I'll make sure to bring you back. Wait for me."

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**So, the fic is as usual, originated from my random ideas after indulging in too much Kingdom Hearts feels. I've been watching KH Days' HD cutscenes too much, I guess. And some scenes of KH3D too. What do you think of the short story, though? Sorry if it's weird. Reviews would be much appreciated, but no pressure. I'm just glad to be back. Hope I can be as active again, and write more stories.**

**Be seeing you, and many thanks for reading!**


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